


Icarus

by masky_gabe



Series: It's future rust and it's future dust [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Violence, Wally Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:01:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7052887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masky_gabe/pseuds/masky_gabe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Wally could hear was the screaming coming from downstairs, he tucked his head under the sheets hoping it would stop but it got louder. Things were being thrown and soon he could hear boots stomping their way up the stairs. He wished his door had a lock , but he didn't understand why he longed for that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Icarus

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first attempt at something like this. Also be warned that there are depictions of domestic abuse and questionable actions.

Flowers was the first and last thing Wally saw that day. His father had been out nearly the night before, leaving Mary in a worried march downstairs in the kitchen. It had been late, he couldn't stay up but he heard it from his room, the sound of something breaking and screaming. He tucked under the covers as the sound of boots trailed up the stairs and near his room. It was a loud thunderous sound coming from his father. Then a quick slam of the door. Wally pushed the sheets off and made his way towards the door, peering out just a little as his heart raced. There were faint cries coming from downstairs but soon his father opened their door once again, leaving Wally to slam his own shut. For the first time he wished there was a lock, and he didn't know why he wanted there to be one. But he could hear things breaking again, as he tried to sleep against the door. 

When the light hit the edge of his face he opened it, making sure it was done, whatever that was. There was no sign of his father anywhere on the second floor. So the little boy ran back to his bed and put on his shoes and a new shirt so he could come downstairs. The living room was a mess and his mother stood by the door talking to a neighbor who complained to her about the noise. Wally moved to his mother slowly, wanting to see if she was alright. Mary pushed his hand away, shooing him off because she couldn't deal with what had happened. She wore a cover, a shawl, even if it was hot out. But she didn't look sweaty, not to Wally. She still looked pretty with her light brown hair and hazel eyes and streaks of freckles spread across her cheeks. She was his mom and no matter what, he thought she was beautiful.

She didn't feel that way. Mary was careful with every movement she made, something calculated in order so she couldn't cause herself more pain. She went to make breakfast and then went upstairs to lie down. His mother managed that a lot, she would make the food then stay locked in her room. 

That night there was no arguing. She didn't come downstairs but Rudy was still angry. Mary managed to lock the door before he got home and he didn't like that. He screamed at the door, pushing at it so hard that it almost seemed to come out. Rudy couldn't manage to stay focused enough and gave up shortly after, heading to a door that was unlocked, Wally's room.  
Every creak was like lightning when he walked in, smelling of vodka. But to Wally it was a putrid smell, like something died inside his father. The little boy peered from under his sheets until the grown man pushed his way onto the bed, with little regard that it was a small twin sized mattress. Wally felt himself being pushed off until he felt an arm around his waist, holding him close as if Wally was nothing more than a stuffed bear.

The next morning, his father was gone, off to work at the mill as he usually did. Half baked, and mostly hung over from the night before. This happened on and off for a few years, his mother hiding away in another room until she couldn't take it anymore. All she did was cry and hope for better days and that didn't feel like enough anymore. One morning Wally woke up, the breakfast was in the fridge and there was a note, saying how much she loved her son and how she couldn't be there anymore. He looked for her in his parent's room but she wasn't there, there was no crying anywhere in the house and that scared him. Because when night came, all he heard was his father screaming and later he'd be screaming into the phone asking why she didn't take her son with her. And the muffled reply telling him she couldn't take care of Wally, and to keep him. 

Every morning since, the little boy walked to the kitchen made himself some canned soup or fried himself a grilled cheese sandwich. He walked himself to school the way his mother took him, until she couldn't anymore. She stopped a while into it, after the screaming started. And now there was no more crying in the house, just his dad coming up the stairs nearly falling a few times. Going into his room or Wally's when he locked his own door. 

Mary had thought it would be alright, that she didn't need to take Wally that he might be safe there. The only one who Rudy ever raised a hand to was her. She couldn't imagine that he would. They both loved their son, but they showed it in different ways. 

Rudy's anger grew more and more, and without his wife there as no outlet. What hit Rudy further was hearing nothing but the name Flash. Wally stayed glued to the screen when the Scarlet speedster came on, he watched with glee seeing the hero smile and care for the people he saved. Wally stared at the hero and wished his father was more like that. That he would smile and pat his head, but that didn't happen. 

The arguments started again, but not with his mother. She as gone. All Wally heard was how much money was going to give him an education and how Wally wasted it. It was one C, but it meant failure in Rudy's eyes. And that was the first time Wally felt something sharp hit his back, a square metal with leather streaming down. He felt pain that could be covered up with a small shirt. Wally felt a fist against his cheek and had to say he fell down, and they believed him. Wally was the sort of kid who always seemed clumsy and now the little boy worked hard at it. 

He felt it was his fault, the C turned into an A, but it wasn't an A+, and there was another hit with the belt. The nights grew longer, having to hear his father stomping up the stairs. Wally learned, he hid in his parent's room and locked the door but when his father came home early he was worse. Wally wanted to run, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge the blows. The little boy stopped talking altogether. His manner became more shy and awkward, and when he heard someone cry or saw someone in pain he ran to them. He wanted to make it go away. But he wasn't sure how. 

It started, then, when Rudy couldn't nor did he want to deal with his son he brought him out, promising a great day at the park but as soon as the redhead walked out of the large truck, there was a screech and Rudy was gone. Wally sometimes stayed in the park for hours until he was hungry. And his father would come back, only drunk and drive them home.  
But his father was impatient, and grew more frustrated when he couldn't pay the mortgage. There was nothing to do. Everything that they had, he sold. Most of it went to feed his thirst, and it was never enough. The apartment they moved into was smaller, where there had been two floors, now there was one, and where had been four bedrooms now there was one. Rudy couldn't afford much and even then he was barely able to pay the rent on time. The manager always called up to their room asking when Wally's father was going to pay the rent and behind the static the scared little boy answered soon. It didn't last long until they had to move again, this time with one of Rudy's friends who also loved to drink. Wally had his own room this time, and the door locked but he could hear the men coming into the small apartment, one egging the other on to kill the woman for dumping that burden on him and the other agreeing with it. 

He watched the police come, because his father had been outside Wally's mother's house. She was with some man who she was going to marry. She was happy. Wally didn't understand why he wasn't. His father's friend moved out after a while, found himself a nice woman who didn't put up with his drinking. That made Rudy angry, he lost his drinking pal and he was not allowed to come over as he thought he deserved. 

Wally stayed glued to the screen, he didn't want to look over at the hateful words his father yelled about his mother or even the mean cruel things he told his son about the Hero, Flash. It was stupid, that it could never happen, Wally's dream was nothing more than that. And from then on out there was no more television. After school, Wally walked to the library and cut out pictures of Flash so he could take them home. He kept them all in his notebook and squeezed them when his father opened the door to their apartment. 

He read that there were children out there without a home, he didn't want that to happen to him. Wally asked his father about it and received nothing more than a drunken cackle, telling his son that if he misbehaved that was where Wally would go. That there, they do bad things to little boys. That scared the little boy, he didn't want to be alone in place he didn't know. That scared him most of all. Until Aunt Iris came, she smiled and smelled like Lavender and brought things about the Flash. That made him happy and he pretended everything was alright. He put on band-aids and laughed and smiled so she wouldn't worry. He was afraid that they would take him away to that place children go. 

He would be stronger than his mother. He wouldn't leave his father, not now. Not when Wally thought Rudy needed him. So he hid, the pain and hurt under a smile and apologies for every little thing he did wrong. He didn't want to touch someone if they didn't want to be touched. Wally couldn't even imagine making someone hurt like he did. She helped with his obsession with the Flash. It helped, with starting his own club, but it was harder to maintain than he thought. No one loved the Flash as much as Wally did. The boys chased him down and screamed mean words, but it didn't bother Wally half as much as his father complaining he was raising a pansy. But Wally didn't want to fight, he didn't want to make someone hurt like his father did to his mother or to him.

Wally hadn't seen her anymore. She never came by. Until she did again and hugged her brother who washed and pretended just like Wally that every thing was alright. Because no one needed to know what was going on. No one.


End file.
